A life in words

  • The Glory of a Summer Evening

    A hamburger with lots of pickles, accompanied by a big, leafy salad. Running barefooted across the cool grass as the color of a mango sunset drains slowly from the sky. Sand on my feet from volleyball, chlorine on my skin from swimming, and a tune in my head from a sing-along on the steps. And,…

  • Comment Policy

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  • Dark-ness

    SPOILER WARNING! Don’t read the second part of this post if you haven’t seen The Dark Knight yet! It will spoil things for you. I base this post on two recent thoughts or notes: Being out of the pop culture loop has almost no down side. I wonder how dark is too dark. 1. Pop…

He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion…. Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations…. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form….John Stuart Mill, On LIberty